IOC Confirms Death of Hein Verbruggen

Photo Courtesy: Cathleen Pruden

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed the death of former International Cycling Union (UCI) President and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) board member Hein Verbruggen after a long battle with bone marrow cancer. Verbruggen was president of the UCI from 1991 to 2005 and a board member of WADA from 1999 to 2002.

Verbruggen left WADA after he grew frustrated with their approach to tackling doping in sports. In April of 2016, Verbruggen officially filed a complaint against WADA with the IOC Ethics Commission, alleging that the organization had known of the doping prevalence in athletics and did not react accordingly until it was reported widely by media outlets.

He also claimed that WADA embarked on a “12-year long hate campaign” following his exit from the UCI in an attempt to characterize him and his successor, Pat McQuaid, as failing to take appropriate action against doping in cycling. He has since criticized WADA for focusing too much on cycling and ignoring doping problems in other sports, including ignoring the recent doping drama leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Verbruggen refused to retract his complaint against WADA and just as recently as a few weeks ago told The Sports Integrity Initiative that he was planning to continue the process with the IOC Ethics Commission. You can read more about Hein Vergrubben’s passing on The Sports Integrity Initiative’s webpage here.

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Trevor Pemberton

6 years ago

My respect to the bereaved